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 How lucky can one girl get? While JoLayne Lucks may have won $14 million, someone else did too. Two rednecks, Chub & Bode, also had a winning ticket but decided they shouldn't have to share. They beat her up and steal her ticket and the rest of the book is JoLayne trying to get it back.While the story plot is good, the characters are not too believable. For instance, Chub & Bode are smart enough to find JoLayne and cover up some of the evidence that she won (getting a store clerk to trade the video surveillance tape with a blank one) however they are not smart enough to stop using her credit card, thereby allowing JoLayne and her new found reporter from tracing them. Additionally, the Hooters waitress that was kidnapped by the video store clerk for Chub went along a little too willingly. No fight, no nothing. While the book has some funny parts (that's Major Chub to you), there are better books by Carl Haissen to read that have good strong characters (Strip Tease, Double Whammy) that leave you saying "This one reminds me of..."
Good fortune recently came however, not in a series of six numbers, but in the form of Carl Hiaasen's latest comic novel, "Lucky You." Fans of earlier deranged trips through Flodida such as "Native Tongue" and "Double Whammy" will again be rewarded for thier investment. Hiaasen has pulled together his best-yet cast of misfits, wannabes, and reluctant heros to infect the Florida landscape. A lottery ticket worth 14 million has been stolen from a small-town veterinarian's assistant, JoLayne. Feature reporter Tom Krone is onboard for the wild ride as the two track down the pathetic thieves and would-be white supremacists, Bodean and Chub. The small town itself serves as the twisted touchstone for the hilarious plot, a place where Christian pilgrims gather to witness the "Weeping" Madonna ("Charlie"-scented tears), the Apolisitic Turtles, and brake-fluid Jesus. When the latter becomes the victim of scheduled road maintainence, a minor character reflects on the loss to the apparition's sponsor, "She's had a bad day. The D.O.T. paved her road stain." The generous dialogue afforded even lessor roles proves beyond doubt that the author has achieved new heights of colloquial brilliance. The pursuit of the missing ticket is interwoven with hilarious sub-plots of divorce, arson, adultery and money-laudering, all which lead back to the smitten feature-writer who leaves a speed-boat wake of turbulence behind him as he and JoLayne seek palmetto jusitce. Some of Hiaasen's PET PEEVES GET PILLIORIED (assistant editors, judges, developers) and this we expect and hope for. Humor makes his contempt that much more scathing. Tom's boss tranfigures into Turtle Boy and the contemptable jurist's clever get-away plot is foiled by his adultering but all-too honest wife ("thirteen times, but that's counting oral relations too.") Once again, Hiaasen offers up some female heroines. Amber, a Hooters waitress, is more than a match for the thieves' accomplice and helps to wind up the headlong story perfectly, offering up just-in-time moral heroics and well, a little luck.
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As with so many authors, Mr. Hiaason's work has sadly weakened over time. Compared to the inventive characters and story lines found in Strip Tease, Double Whammy and Stormy Weather, Lucky You is NOT FUNNY. Strongly suggest that Mr. Hiaason returns to his original formula of "Skink" as the sub protagonist, surrounded by "Chemo-esque" type antagonists - who display new and exciting uses for - say - chum making machines!
The odds of being struck by lighting is something just under than 7 million to one. The odds of winning the Floridia lottery are around 14 million to one, so I always figured that after I got struck the second time, I'd buy me a Lotto ticket. I'm sorry to say, as yet, I haven't got hit so's much as once. 
What a parody! If this is the worst of Carl's then I can't wait to read his other books. To those who say it has "smirking racism", it is about REDNECKS afterall. To those saying the characters are "unbelievable", take a good look at your fellow Americans. I guess some like to think that the world is a nice & perfect place.
